Fluted flash hider



warniny 1961 c w. MUSSER 2,985,074

FLUTED FLASH HIDER Filed March 28, 1958 FIG. 4. FlG.5

INVEN TOR. G WALTON MUSSER FLUTED FLASH ER C Walton Musser, 66 McKay Sh, Beverly, Mass.

Filed Mar. 28, 1958, Ser. No. 724,77 8

3 Claims. (CI. 89-14) (Granted under Title 35, U S. Code (1.952), sec. 266) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by and for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to devices for hiding or eliminating the flash incident to the firing of a gun and more particularly to the provision of a flash hiding device which is both highly effective and rugged enough to withstand the shock and strain involved in its use.

Flash hiders that have been more or less successful in the past have been mostly of the conical or prong types. For the conical type, contours and expansion ratios have to be carefully held to obtain the desired degree of flashlessness. Pronged flash hiders have proven to be especially meritorious, but their construction does not provide sufficient strength to prevent mechanical damage. Consequently, there have been numerous attempts to strengthen the construction of the pronged-type hider without decreasing its efliciency.

The reason for the elfectiveness of the pronged-type flash hider is not fully known, There have been many studies to fully explain its operation, but none of them are universally accepted by those skilled in the art. It seems possible that the effectiveness of a flash hider may depend on the defocusing of the exiting gases. When the gases leave the end of a gun barrel, they set up shock waves and create an afterflash at the point of conversion of these shock waves. By putting unsymmetrical fingers or prongs at the muzzle, these shock waves are probably broken up and reflected so that they no longer converge or meet at a point.

The present invention provides a flash hiding device which is rugged and effective. It comprises a hollow conical member arranged at its smaller end for attachment to the muzzle of a gun and having its inner periphery in the form of flutes which break up and change the angle of reflection of the shock waves. As will appear, this device completely obscures the flash of a gun to which it is attached.

The invention will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings and its scope is indicated by the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 illustrates a preferred form of the invention,

Fig. 2 is a view looking into the mouth of the flash hider illustrated by Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 illustrates a photographic record of the flash produced by firing a gun without a flash hider,

Fig. 4 illustrates a similar record of the flash produced by firing a gun with a plain surfaced hider, and

Fig. 5 is a similar record of the firing of a gun provided with the flash hider of the present invention.

Fig. 1 illustrates a flash hider which is threaded at its smaller end for attachment to the muzzle of a gun barrel 11. From Fig. 2, which is a view looking into the barrel of the rifle, it is seen that the flash hider 10 has its inner periphery in the form of corrugations. As ac- Patented May 23, 1961 tually constructed, the high points 12 of these corrugations diverged from the axis of the barrel 11 by an angle of five degrees, and the low points 13 of these corrugations diverged from this axis by an angle of nine degrees and fifteen minutes. The total number of corrugations was five. While these dimensions were found to be eflEective in eliminating the flash, they are not to be taken as critical.

The convolutions or corrugations on the interior of the flash hider are essentially a sine wave Superimposed on a cone. For the design shown there are 5 sine waves per 360 or 1 sine wave per 72. The amplitude of this sine waves varies with its position from the muzzle of the rifle. At the muzzle of the rifle it is of zero amplitude increasing to the maximum amplitude of the large end of the flash hider. The amplitude of the sine wave in the design shown is approximately /3 of the increase in the cone diameter over the circular end of the cone. This is correct for any cross sectional position of the flash hider.

Fig. 3 represents the flash produced by firing the gun without a flash hider of any type.

Fig. 4 represents the flash produced by firing the gun with a flash hider exactly like that of Fig. 1 with the exception that the inner surface of the hider was not corrugated.

Fig. 5 represent the situation when the gun was fired with the device of the present invention.

Since Figs. 3, 4, and 5 are copies of actual photographs taken during the firing of the gun, it is apparent that the device of the present invention completely eliminated the flash.

I claim:

1. In combination with a gun, a flash hiding device comprising a hollow member in the form of a cone having its interior surface in the form of a plurality of corrugations, said corrugations having the form of sine wave curves, in a plane transverse to the longitudinal axis of said hollow member, said sine wave curves increasing in amplitude from a small end of said hollow member to a opposite end of said hollow member, said small end being attached to a muzzle end of said gun.

2. In combination with a gun, a flash hiding device comprising a hollow member in the form of a cone having its interior surface in the form of an odd number of corrugations, said corrugations having the form of sine wave curves in a plane transverse to the longitudinal axis of said hollow member, said sine wave curves increasing in amplitude from zero at a small end of said hollow member to a maximum at an opposite end of said hollow member, said small end being attached to said gun.

3. In combination with a gun, a flash hiding device comprising a hollow member in the form of a cone having its interior surface in the form of a plurality of corrugations, a small end of said hollow member being attached to said gun, said corrugations having the form of sine wave curves in a plane transverse to the longitudinal axis of said hollow member, said corrugations having tops diverging from said small end of said hollow member by an angle of the order of 5 degrees and bottoms diverg ing from said small end of said hollow member by an angle of the order of 9 degrees and 15 minutes.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,667,186 Bluehdorn Apr. 24, 1928 2,339,777 Green I an. 25, 1944 2,486,019 Goddard Oct. 25, 1949 2,811,901 Barr Nov. 5, 1957 2,900,875 Fergus et al Aug. 25, 1959 

